


sympathize

by meteor-sword (vaenire)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Hugs, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27555868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaenire/pseuds/meteor-sword
Summary: Senna wasn’t Tonraq’s first friend in the South, but she was the first one he talked about his banishment with.
Relationships: Senna/Tonraq (Avatar)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	sympathize

Senna wasn’t Tonraq’s first friend in the South, but she was the first he opened up to. Southerners near his age didn’t know exactly why the Northern Prince appeared one day, free of his royal purple and his entourage, but it was still difficult to go about creating a new life. Senna was just about the easiest person to talk to as he tried to make friends. 

So Senna wasn’t Tonraq’s first friend in the South, but she was the first one he talked about his banishment with. It had happened unexpectedly, when she invited him to her family’s tent for dinner one night. He helped her bring dishes outside afterward, scouring them clean with snow and gravel. 

They’d been squatting to scrub when it came up. He told her about the forest, and the rest of it rolled out of his mouth easier than he imagined it would the first time talking about his Father banishing him. His eyes were so trained on the dishes in the dark, setting them carefully on the snow when he finished with one, he didn’t notice the way Senna’s hands had stopped, listening to his story in shock. 

“I thought about settling in the Earth Kingdom,” he said casually, grabbing the last bowl before Senna could. “But it just… didn’t feel right,” he shrugged. “I guess I need the snow, you know?” Discomforted by her silence, he tried to shrug it off with a laugh. He looked at her, hoping he hadn’t overshared. 

She was frozen with a somewhat mortified look on her face, staring at him with wide eyes and jaw slightly dropped. 

“Sorry--” he started to say, but she furrowed her brows together sharply and shook her head. 

“Don’t say sorry,” she said, throwing the cup in her hand into the snow and reaching out to put a slender hand on his shoulder, squeezing. “So you-- you can’t go home?” 

He smiled tensely and shook his head. “This is home now,” he said, nodding vaguely in the direction of his own tent. 

“Over one mistake?” 

“It was…” he said, feeling awkward, “a pretty big mistake.” 

She exhaled a mystified sigh through her nose. “Still.” She looked off in the distance, the enormity of his punishment too large. “I’m so sorry.” 

Tonraq physically recoiled from the apology like it were an electric current, and her hand slipped from his shoulder. He lost balance where he was still squatting and sat unceremoniously on the snow. She laughed, the sound more gentle than usual, hidden behind a mitten, before standing and holding her hands out to help him back up. He took them sheepishly, his embarrassment not helped by how easily she pulled him up. (It shouldn’t be surprising, should it? He had seen her hunt with her father, both donning six foot spears with whale tooth blades, and how well she wielded it.) 

He was still considering this when she spoke again. “I can’t imagine having to leave my home. Regardless of everything else, I’m sorry that happened to you.” Vaguely he realized his hands were still in hers, her fingers squeezing his through their thick mitts. “Can I give you a hug?” 

He blinked, stunned for a moment before nodding speechlessly. Without hesitation, she closed the space between them, arms wrapping around him in a big motion, one arm around his ribs and the other settled at his lower back, cheek against his chest. She was a head shorter than him, and he didn’t know what to do with his hands, stiffening for a moment before settling his arms around her shoulders. It was a warm embrace, a reprieve from the cool night breeze coming off the freezing water not far away. 

After a beat, he realized she was not about to let go anytime soon. Even through both of their parkas he could feel her sure grip, comforting and supportive even as the wind whipped up from the shoreline not too far away. He sighed involuntarily when she gave an encouraging squeeze and leant his cheek against the top of her head. His shoulders relaxed, and then his spine, and he realized with a little surprise that he couldn’t remember the last time someone hugged him like this. Maybe his Mother held him like this years ago, as a child. He might have held the girl he courted back home--  _ back North _ \-- as a teenager. 

The warmth of the hug loosened his muscles like a sauna, and he felt her shifting closer when a square of light fell across the snow beside them. “Senna?” Her mother stood in the opening of their tent, the fire inside casting her silhouette across the snow. “Are you almost done? It’s too cold to linger outside.” 

They jumped apart before they could be seen, Senna immediately crouching to grab the last cup she had been cleaning before calling back. “Almost!” 

“Well, hurry on in,” her Mother said before letting the tent flap close once more. 

Tonraq stood there for a long moment, thoughts blank and chest light, before crouching to grab the bowls he had stacked in the snow bank, focusing his eyes downcast once more, sure that Senna would not mention the moment again. 

As he stacked the bowls and got a sturdy grip on them, about to stand, Senna reached out and grabbed his wrist again, momentarily.

“I  _ am _ very sorry. You can talk to me, if you ever need,” she said. And then stood with her dishes and led him back to the tent, holding the flap for him. 

**Author's Note:**

> hey im [ meteor-sword ](https://meteor-sword.tumblr.com)on tumblr come say hi


End file.
